Just Cannon Fodder
by bant amc
Summary: The second wave of Covenant has arrived at Earth. Their orbital defenses have been destroyed leaving the surface wide open for assualt. Through the eyes of a grunt named Poli, see the major battles, betrayls, and alliences. COMPLETE!
1. Move Up!

Just Canon Fodder

Move Up!

September 25th 2552

Covenant Cruiser, _The_

_Hopeful Sacrifice_

In Slipspace

En Route to Earth

Poli and the rest of his pack of Grunts were resting in one of the many methane rich "Houses" aboard _The Hopeful Sacrifice. _Poli was fast asleep dreaming of a peaceful time where all of his kin lived on his home planet, when suddenly the Ship Master's voice roared through every intercom in the ship. "All hands prepare for battle; we will be arriving at Earth in 2 units."

_The Hopeful Sacrifice _was the part of the second wave of fighters attacking Earth. The first wave had been successful in destroying the majority of Earth's orbital defenses, and the second wave had at least 100 ships ready to lay waste to the Human's home world. Normally they would have just blasted the planet from space with the plasma weapons and be done with it, but this time it was different. Poli wondered why they had to go down and fight, but he was just a lowly Grunt, he did not question orders.

"You heard orders, move!" the leader of Poli's pack, Hera, shouted. Poli sluggishly put on what little armor he had and his methane tank, and began filing out of the barracks with the rest of his pack. They met with the Dock Master Humaree to find out which ship they were deployed to. "Platoon 53-C?" Humaree questioned. "Yes your Excellency." Hera answered. "Platoon 53-C reporting as ordered sir." "Very well, your dropship is dropship Horan-167 on deck 3B, two decks below us." The Dock Master said. "We're on our way there sir." They began to make their way through the crowds of grunts and elites alike to get to the grav lift.

The seven or so Grunts ran as fast as their legs could carry them to the drop ships that were stationed two decks below them. On the way there, they all started their little side conversations to help calm themselves. "We not get sent to front, we probably go in last." he youngest member of the pack Lapo muttered nervously. All of them talked like this, giving them false hope. But, everyone knew that they would be the first ones in and the first ones to die. Grunts were always the first ones in. This is the way things always worked, have always worked, and will always work. By the time they fought through the crowds and boarded their drop ship they had the first chance to see who else was in their squad.

They were all terrified when they learned they only had one Elite accompanying them, and a rookie nonetheless. He wore the standard blue armor issued to all Elite rookies. "We're dead." Lapo muttered under his breath. "Humph" The elite amused by the grunts fear. "There are more of my kin coming onboard so make room." The grunts all seemed to calm down a little and shuffled to the sides of the ship to make room for the elites that would be coming aboard soon. No matter how bad they treated grunts, elites were masters of the battlefield and gave grunts more of a chance to survive by being in their presence. Therefore, they would gladly welcome them aboard. The ship lurched forward, and then returned to normal as they came out of Slipspace. An eerie silence washed through the dropship as the pilot waited for the other to arrive. Cutting through the silence, the ship's master alarm bared through the speakers all over the ship.

- - - - - -

"Status report!" ship master Hundaeem shouted.

"Multiple impacts on the port bow!" the helmsman cried.

"Damn." Hundaeem thought, "The humans were waiting for us." Another impact

"Our shields are down"

"Evasive actions get us out of here!"

The ship lurched violently to the right, and alarms blared all over the ship as the humans Archer pod missiles hit their ship.

"We've lost control, we're going down!"

No more was said on the bridge, as a MAC round blew clean through the center of the ship, causing everything that dared to stand in its' way, including the bridge, and everyone on it, to simply cease to exist.

- - - - - -

From the dropship, Poli could see the ship lurch violently to the right. "We're launching, now!" the pilot called out. "But, there are more men coming aboard. We must wait!" The Elite rookie shouted. "There's no time, we're launching" There was no time to argue further as an explosion rocked the deck and two dropships next to theirs burst into flames. Before they knew it, the dropship was in space and heading towards their destination, a place the Humans called, Alaska.

Their mission was to infiltrate and destroy a Human supply plant that had been supplying fuel and weapons to Human forces all over the world. Destroying this would greatly affect the battle raging on other parts of the planet. Originally, there was going to be at least 100 dropships attacking this base, but due to unforeseeable circumstances, that attack force was whittled down to just about 35 ships. This was not what was planned, but they had to make due and hope for the best.

- - - - - -

The ride down to the surface went smooth enough. When they landed and the dropship door opened, a gale of show and wind blew into the dropship and made everyone, including the Elite, flinch.

"It cold. Out tanks might freeze." Lapo said. "There's no time for that, move Grunt!" When they surveyed their surroundings, they found that out of the thousand of troops planned to attack, only about 200 grunts 50 jackals, and 50 elites made it to the surface.

They all shuffled out of the ship and were met by gusts of wind that knocked down a few grunts. Some Elites that were in the other dropships laughed at the attempts of the grunts as they struggled to regain their balance. But quickly ceased as the leader of the attack Ramandee raises his arm in the air order his troops to silence themselves. "Move out" he said. As one, the 300 or so troops moved towards their goal. Wind whipped at their faced while they walked for what seemed like hours until the scouts ahead of everyone singled the battalion to stop. Up ahead, the scouts saw a patrol of three vehicles. Three of what the Humans called Warthogs, with three humans in each. The real problem was the huge tank that slowly brought up the rear, and was not noticed by the scouts until the last seconds, as it had been repainted in order to camouflage itself. "Heavy weapons!" the scout shouted. Twenty grunts armed with fuel rod canons ran up to the front and unleashed a volley of plasma towards the clueless humans below.

- - - - - -

Private Phillips was the only one who saw it coming. He shouted for everybody to get down, but it fell on deaf ears as 20 bombs of burning plasma crashed down upon then, melting the metal on the four vehicles. The Scorpion tank had barley managed to survive the initial volley, and PFC Williams took aim at the group of grunts that had just killed some of his closest friends. However, before he could fire the tanks main gun a second attack came at him. His machine gunner had managed to bail out in time but the other two crewmembers were not as lucky as the armor was melted instantly flash frying everyone inside.

Sergeant Burns and just managed to escape the death trap and immediately radioed back to HQ for help. "Can anyone here me? This is Sergeant Burns of patrol 3. Covenant forces are inbound! I repeat Covenant forces are" Before he could finish his sentence, his head exploded as a Jackal sharpshooter cut him off.

The distant sound of alarms pierced through the night as the Sergeants distress call got through. "There's no need to be secret any longer move up! Full charge!" the veteran ordered. The attack force ran at full sprint towards their destination: Crystal Outpost.

- - - - - -

"Do you understand the plan Ramandee?" "Yes your Excellency, I will not fail you." "For your sake I hope you don't, Vhanladee out."

Commander Vhanladee's last words had caused a strange feeling to build in the pit of Ramandees's stomach. However, he quickly put it aside as he called to his warriors, "We are being sent reinforcements, a full regiment of Wraiths from the north, and a squad of Spec Ops from the East. Our objective is to distract the majority of their forces to us while the Spec Ops. Infiltrate the base and eliminate the humans' commanding officer, and destroy their communications. Then, while the humans are confused, we send word to the wraiths, and they will start to bombard the base, and then we charge the humans and kill every one of them."

A roar of approval came from the troops at Ramandee's last words. However, there were no shouts or battle cries from the grunts. They knew that they would be sent in first and would most likely all be dead before the wraiths even started to fire. It was the fate of simple grunts they had little training and were almost expected to sacrifice themselves for the elites. However, if they refused their orders they had less chance of surviving than if they went to battle as the elites would most likely just kill them for sport, so they pressed on.

They encountered only a few humans on their way to the base and they easily mowed them down with no causalities. When the base finally came into sight three elites picked up their pace, eager to be the first ones to kill, but their eagerness and hope ended as a steady "Crack. Crack. Crack" of a sniper rifles dropped them to the ground.

"Snipers! Scatter and continue to advance towards the humans!" They quickly spread into six even groups of 50 spread 100 meters apart. Poli was separated from his pack and could only hope the best for them, but now was the time to worry about himself. As bullets flied all around him.

A grunt next to him dropped to the ground, another, and then two more. Grunts, jackals, and elites alike were being cut down. Almost one fourth of the entire battalion had been killed by the time they got in range. But, as soon as they did get in range walls of blue and green plasma filled the sky and impacted on the snipers positions. By the time they were around 200 meters away from the camp's first line of defenses the humans were out in full force anxiously waiting for those bastards the get in range.

- - - - - -

"You think those idiots will fall into the trap?" Sergeant Banks quickly replied, "Are you a goddamned moron Joe, they're dumb as shit, of course they will." After the distress call from Burns, they had hastily set up a minefield to stop the Covenant in their tracks, but they hadn't counted on them being spread so thinly. If they didn't regroup only about half of them would be in range of the minefield. "Doesn't matter" banks thought to himself, "Half should be enough." But there were two more things they hadn't counted on. The Spec Ops. Ready to slaughter everyone inside their base, and the Wraith tanks ready to lay waste to them. "Orders sir?" a young recruit said. "Let em' come to us, then blow them to hell after they hit the mines." "Yes sir!" The soldier then ran off to inform his squad leader of the plan. "This should fun" the Sergeant thought to himself and smiled.

- - - - - -

Poli and his squad were almost within firing range when the commander began to shout, "Pull back, pull back! Mines!" The order came soon enough so save a good portion of the squads, including Poli's squad, but came to late for two of the squads who were already deep within the minefield. They cautiously started to walk back the way they came retracing their footsteps, when one of the grunts panicked and began to run. Another grunt tried to stop him but missed and both of them stepped on mines. This cause a chain reaction setting of every mine near them incinerating both squads and killing a few members of other various squads who weren't far enough away.

Poli heard a human yell out, "We've got em' fire at will!" at this point all hell broke loose the squad that was closest to the base attempted to get away and establish some sort of defense against the onslaught. Unfortunately, a well-placed rocket hit the center of the group leaving the survivors easy targets for human sharp shooters. Ramandee cursed in an alien tongue and began to bark orders, "All remaining squads spread out and keep moving, don't make yourselves easy targets." A grenade that exploded near him stopped him but he quickly finished his orders. "The Spec Ops. are in the building and the Wraiths will join in shortly. Keep advancing!"

Poli had heard the orders, but didn't like the nervous tone in the Elites' voice. Elites were almost never nervous in battle, but for a commander to be nervous, that was unheard of. Like it or not, his squad had already begun to move up but he didn't want to be left behind so he quickly caught up with them and began to fire his overcharged plasma pistol at the humans position, killing a few in the process. They continued to advance on the human's position experiencing only about 10 casualties along the way. Before they knew it, they were fighting in the heart of the humans' first line of defense. Now, they could only hope to stay alive long enough for the Spec Ops. to finish their job.

- - - - - -

Yaldemee and his group of Spec Ops. continued down the path leading towards the heart of the base. According to intelligence, a high-ranking human was hiding in there. Yaldemee believed his name was…..General …Goodman, not that it mattered anyway. When they first infiltrated the base he had split his forces into two groups; five in each. Group 2 had just reported that communications were destroyed and they were heading behind the humans' defenses to silently kill as many as they could then get out, and join the front lines. It was now up two Yaldemee's group of elites to kill this…General, and turn the tide of the battle. They met little resistance on the way their, odd, considering this was supposed to be an extremely high-ranking human. Yaldemee could have laughed at the lack of security but he had learned to keep such outbursts controlled long ago. When they finally reached the bases control room they silently entered. There were two guards standing at the open door, but thanks to their active camouflage they were unnoticed. Yaldemee snuck up behind the general while the other Spec Ops. prepared to kill the nearest threats. With a simple flick of the wrists, the human's neck snapped in two. The other elites did the same, and as one, all five elites de-activated their camouflage and pulled out energy swords. They slashed at everyone they saw until they were they only five left in the room. The humans never even had the chance to fire a weapon. "Pathetic" Yaldemee muttered. He tapped the communications button on his helmet to tell the commander of their success.

- - - - - -

"We were successful; contact the wraiths to begin firing." "Understood" Ramandee said. He then connected to the commander of the tank attack. "Move in" He barked. Hundreds of meters ahead he could see dozens of plasma bombs approach the base. He then radioed every troop still alive, "Kill every human you see, charge!" Battle cries came from the elites as they ran towards the humans gazing in fear of the superheated plasma bombs heading straight for their base. Elites dropped their weapons and pulled out energy swords and slashed at the confused humans. By the time the first volley hit the base, half of the humans were dead, including the snipers and machine guns on the top of the base.

- - - - - -

Banks saw the slaughter going on in front of him and realized that if he did not act quickly their wouldn't be a defensive position anymore. He shouted, "The first line has been over run! Fall back to the second line!" The troops gladly retreated towards the base, and as the last human got away Banks muttered to himself, "I'm not out of tricks yet you assholes."

- - - - - -

Ramandee saw the humans pulling back and yelled out, "Charge them wile their backs' are turned!" What was left of his troops began to run after them when twin rockets came out of nowhere impacting and killing about 25 more troops. The humans had hidden two tanks in fire pits, covering them with snow and painting their barrels white making them nearly invisible to the naked eye. Ramandee quickly acted and jumped onto one of them, digging through the snow, until he found the metal. He began to bash at the metal until it cracked, and he lobbed two plasma grenades through it. He heard the satisfying screams of the humans occupying the vehicle flowed by a steady" Thump thump." Following his example, another elite did the same thing to the second tank. The rest of the forces, consisting of about 100 troops, started towards the humans' second line of defense.

- - - - - -

"Shit!" Banks screamed, "Give them hell marines, fire at will!" just after he finished his sentence a round of overcharged plasma hit him directly in the face decapitating him from the shoulders up. The marines began to panic, seeing their noncom die, and began firing blindly into the night hoping to hit something. Oblivious to the tanks behind them as the second volley hit directly into the humans' position.

- - - - - -

The Covenant troops easily picked off any stragglers, and after clearing the exterior of the base, they began to enter the base. They were met with little resistance as they mopped up the surviving humans, taking only one prisoner for interrogation. When they reached the center of the center of the building the set up three bombs set them for ten minutes, then got the hell out.

After retreating about 500 meters away from the base, they turned back to see a brilliant explosion consuming the entire base with flames. Poli finally had time to look around and see what was left of the strike team. Out of the originally thousand planned to attack; only 50 remained. None of the 25 surviving grunts were part of Poli's pack however. Poli wanted to mourn for the loss of his brothers, but could not as five dropships came to pick them up. Since The_ Hopeful Sacrifice _had been destroyed, they were being sent back to a quickly established base. Poli hoped he wouldn't see any more battles and that after they had taken this planet the war would be over and he could finally see his home planet, and mourn the millions of grunt casualties. Sadly, this was not to be….

Please review, another chapter will be up shortly if get enough positive feedback. Constructive Criticism is appreciated, but please don't be too harsh as this is my very first fanfic, and pretty much the first time I've ever written anything that didn't involve a school report. .


	2. Not Over Yet

Just Cannon Fodder

Not over yet…

September 26th, 2552

Covenant dropship

Somewhere over the Pacific

En route to Covenant base

The destruction of camp Crystal had been more of a success then normally thought. Reports were coming in from all over the world of the tides of battle changing, and the Humans losing troops and morale. Still, to Poli, it was not worth losing all of his brothers and hundreds more grunts. Apparently, though, it was fine to every other species within the Covenant. The pilot called out to the dropships' occupants,

"We'll reach the base in less than two and a half units."

To Poli, this was the first good news he had heard in a while. He had been cramped up in this small, uncomfortable ship for an entire 10 units. He was looking forward to being able to send some time with his own kin and wait out the battles. Elites saw grunts as worthless soldiers, but there was so much more to grunt society that they would never be able to comprehend, simply because they will never take the time to learn…or care.

Shaking him from his thought, the dropship began to shake violently as began increasing in speed, and decreasing in altitude.

"We're hit!" the pilot roared. "Brace for impact, we're going down!"

Seconds after finishing his sentence the ship crashed into the ground. The lights went out and the ship went pitch black. The ship continued to slide on the ground for a few more seconds, and then violently stopped as it hit the side of a rather large rock. The emergency light flashed on and after looking at the damage to the ship, Poli was amazed that the entire crew survived; except the pilot.

"Gather what you can and get out" an elite shouted.

The others obeyed and quickly grabbed weapons, grenades, food, and other various supplies. Quickly, the 10 grunts and 5 elites filed out of the destroyed ship and searched the area for humans. The elites had no trouble spotting 3 humans slowly advancing towards them, an quickly killed them by firing short, controlled bursts of plasma, trying to make a little noise as possible. The grunts however, didn't posses the sharp eyes of an elite and had more trouble seeing. They decided to leave this particular battle to them.

After the humans in the area had been eliminated, the sun had started to rise a little and the grunts could get their first look at the crash site. The dropship was in worse condition that originally thought. The cockpit had been ripped open with the pilot's torso hanging off the front. Everyone in the squad knew they weren't getting to base on that ship.

Lieutenant Grihonlee radioed to base,

"This is dropship Omega-7. We have been shot down, our pilot is dead, and our ship is beyond repair. Over"

A burst of static replied, "Acknowledged, Omega-7." The voice said.

"Priority shift. There is a human base due east of you. It is well hidden and they have AA guns set up around it. They've been shooting down our ships all day, so we need you to place a beacon there so we know where they are, and they best place to attack from."

"Understood command." Grihonlee replied.

"You all heard him, move out!" he ordered.

They walked in silence, sticking to what darkness was left to escape detection. When they neared the base Grihonlee motioned for everyone to halt.

"Here's the plan." He said quietly.

"The grunts will move up the left and get the humans' attention, while the elites sneak in and plant the beacon. Then the elites will attack the humans from behind." He let that sink in for a second

"Now move."

The elites vanished into the shadows and headed towards the base. While the grunts slowly moved up behind a few large rocks. They waited a minute until Grihonlee's voice burst through the radios attached to their methane tanks.

"Now!" he ordered.

As one, the grunts all overcharged their plasma pistols and shot them towards the humans closest to the elites' position.

- - - - - -

The foot patrol of 10 marines was supposed to be searching for survivors of the downed dropship. 'As if anything could survive that crash.' Burnett thought to himself. The ship had crashed full speed into a rock. Hell, he even saw what he assumed was the pilot's body hanging out the window. Nevertheless, command still wanted to be as safe as possible. A split second later, his vision turned to a bright green the turned back to normal. He heard the screams of several marines as they were hit by plasma shots. Five of his marines were dead and another was critically wounded and did not look like he had much of a chance to live. He quickly assessed the situation and realized they were at a terrible disadvantage. They were ambushed, most likely outnumbered and outgunned, and half of his men were already out of the fight. Burnett also knew that plasma pistols had to wait a few seconds to cool down after firing, an overcharged shot. Therefore, he took advantage of this and prayed there weren't any more Covenant around.

"Paul!" he shouted

"You and Gabe grab Paul! We're getting the hell outta here!"

"Private tell HQ of our situation."

The three remaining marines got to their tasks and began to fall back. Corporal Kyle Burnett fire blindly in the direction the shots came from. After a minute or two of firing, his clip ran empty, and he went to reload. However, he paused as a stream of blue light shot into the early morning sky, and then disappeared. He turned back to see if the other three saw it. He looked just in time to see the other three crumble to the ground as energy swords hit major organs and arteries. Before he could turn and run, his gut erupted in pain, but the pain subsided quickly and was replaced by a warm, gooey feeling. He realized it was his blood as he fell to the ground. His eyelids became heavy as life slowly escaped his body. He knew he was dieing and waited to finally be reunited with his family.

- - - - - -

With the beacon set, the squad of fourteen was easily able to kill off any nearby humans. They then retreated into a nearby cave to rest and wait for the attack force to arrive.

- - - - - -

Poli had enjoyed a full five units asleep until he was awakened by the sound of footsteps. As he opened his eyes, he found himself staring down the barrel of human weapon. The grunt next to him screamed as he got up to run, but was quickly put down before he could get anywhere near the exit. The sound of gunfire awoke the rest and they elites instinctively reached for their weapons. Two stopped as they realized their situation, but two younger elites powered up their energy swords and lunged at the humans. Their shields were deactivated so they didn't stand a chance. The human said something Poli didn't understand; due to the lack of a translator, but saw the remaining elites stand up. Seeing, as they were not being shot at Poli decided to do the same. As the rest of the squad stood up and followed the human in front, as he led them to another group of humans.

- - - - - -

"Hey Serge!" a young marine shouted.

"We found these guys what do we do with them?"

"I say we line em' up and shoot them." Another marine suggested.

"Your ass we will Private!" the Sergeant replied.

"Bring them back to base and report to the LT, he'll know what to do with these bastards."

"Will do Serge" the young marine said. Disheartened that he couldn't kill them, but orders were orders.

"Let's go uglies!" he shouted back to the Covenant.

- - - - - -

Poli soon found himself in some sort of metal device that locked his hands behind his back as he was lead to a small room the humans referred to as, "The Brig" an was separated from the rest of his squad. He waited for what seemed like forever in the darkness until three humans appeared at the door to his cell.

"Him first" he hard a human say.

The light in the cell turned on, and the humans entered. They placed one of the elite's translators around his neck. He wondered how they had gotten this, but remembered the gunshots he had heard earlier. One human wit pale white skin stepped forward and spoke.

"Where's your base?" he asked.

"Me not know" Poli quickly replied.

"Bullshit!" the human hit him with eh bud of his gun. Not hard enough to draw blood, but hard nonetheless.

"Me really not know! Me sent from cruiser and was on way to base. Me haven't seen it yet."

"Figures" the human said. "Kill this one, we got plenty more."

"Gladly." The human on his right said. He stepped forward and pulled out his sidearm. Just as he was about to shoot, an explosion caused the base to shake and the light to flicker on and off.

"What the hell was that?" one of he humans questioned.

"I don't know, but let's go find out."

"Leave him here, not like he can do anything."

The humans quickly ran out of the room closing the cell door behind them. A few minutes went by until the cell door was ripped open and an elite stood at the front of the cell.

"We need to get going, the assault on this base has begun." The elite ordered, but not in the way elites usually talked to grunts.

"If we do not get to the surface we will most likely be killed. Now come"

Where are the others?" Poli questioned.

"They didn't make it. I'm sorry." Poli was speechless that an elite had shown sympathy for him, but quickly put it out of his mind.

"There's no time to grieve. Come"

Poli fell in line with the elite as they cautiously made their way up stairs and down hallways, getting closer to the surface with each passing minute. After an hour or two of walking, they began to hear gunshot coming directly in front of them behind a door. Both Poli, and the elite, who had told Poli his name was Tolyhimee pulled out human frag grenades which they found on the way hear. They had also found some guns, but both of their fingers were to large to fit in the triggers. As they approached the door, Tolyhimee peered under the crack under the door. He saw that there were three humans standing by the door firing at targets he couldn't see. He opened the door silently and motioned to Poli. Poli understood and pulled to pin off of a grenade and tossed it through the door. Tolyhimee quickly shut the door and they both jumped away. A satisfying "Thump" as the firing ceased.

The door flew open and two huge mounds of flesh walked through. Poli had never seen them before but Tolyhimee recognized them as Brutes.

"Come" one of the brutes said as he handed them weapons.

"Our forces need help on the front lines. Where are the other prisoners?"

"We're all that's left." Tolyhimee explained.

"Very well." The brute retorted, disgusted at the weakness of the elites and grunts.

"We are moving to assault the enemy from behind."

"I have several of my brethren with me. We must move quickly or we might lose the element of surprise."

They quickly followed the brutes and saw first hand what the brutes could do. Any humans that dared to cross their path were mauled to death. The brutes did not even need to fire their weapons. Tolyhimee and Poli exchanged nervous glances but didn't dare to say anything to the brutes while they were in their rampage. They had almost reached the surface when an enormous explosion made everyone; including the brutes, freeze. A second later, the building collapsed around them.…

- - - - - -

Sorry about the short length of this chapter, I just felt like getting a new chapter out soon. The following chapter will be longer.


	3. Assualt

Just Cannon Fodder

Assault

September 26th, 2552

Human base.

Two floors below the surface.

All he could see is black. He wondered if he was dead. He thought he could make out the faces of his fallen pack brothers somewhere in the blackness. The faces became clearer and clearer until they suddenly vanished, only to be replaced by Tolyhimee's dead face staring back at him. Poli screeched and tried to jump back, but found that he couldn't move his body. His legs had been covered by part of the ceiling that collapsed. Another chunk of metal fell upon his legs. Poli knew that his legs would soon be crushed, until he felt the pressure being relived as a brute lifted if off.

"We have to keep moving!" the brute said.

"We're the only ones who made it, but there's no time to think about that now." He began to lead Poli away from the ruble. Poli looked back at Tolyhimee body. He was the only Elite who had ever shown any form of compassion towards him. He wanted to go back and see if he was still live, but knew the brute would not allow such a thing. He was not aware of the brutes rank among the other Covenant species, but he was sure they were higher than grunts. His thought process was stopped when he ran right into the brute's backside. The brute had stopped to gaze at several of his kin, all killed by human gunfire. The brute then dropped his weapon, went down to all fours, and began to charge in the direction where the brutes were originally headed.

Poli had tried to keep up with the brute, and was successful for a minute or two, until he lost him completely. He gave up trying to catch up, and stopped to catch his breath. He stood there for a moment panting. When he regained his composure, he started to run again, but stopped as he heard several humans screaming in what Poli recognized as fear, pain, and death. Poli ran as fast he could to see what had happened. After another minute of running, he turned a corner and wished he had stayed where he was. The entire hallway was painted in human blood, and limbs that had been ripped off lay scattered on the floor. He moved through the hallway slowly, trying to avoid the limbs and pools of blood. After another minute or two, he cleared the hallway and began his run again, following the bloody footprints that undoubtedly belonged to the brute. He went through a door just in time to see the brute fall to his knees and then collapse onto the ground. After the brute fell, Poli could see his killers; two humans armed with assault rifles. Poli heard one of them yell, "There's another one!" and the two soldiers opened fire.

Poli's combat instincts kicked in as he tried to remember what little training he had. He rolled to the left, dropped to his knee, and drew his plasma pistol from its holster. He fired three quick shots into the human closest to him, and he dropped. The second human had been reloading at this time had had not noticed his fellow marine die. He looked over to him to see why he stopped firing.

"Shit!" he screamed as he realized what had just happened. He aimed his sights at the grunts head and pulled the trigger. Poli knew it was over as soon as the human aimed at him. As his pistol had overheated, and it was still cooling down. However, luck had seemed to be on Poli's side today. That human's weapon shot a steady "Clack". The human had not finished reloading! Poli shot at the human until his gun over charged. After, he realized this was just a waste of ammo, but he was in a state of shock after his escape from death. He quickly pushed it aside as he heard two more humans talking beyond the other door in the room. He picked up a dead marines' grenade, pulled the pin, and tossed it through an open crack in the door. He heard several humans scream as they were blown apart. Poli felt a moment of triumph in defeating the humans. He then picked up a few grenades from the dead humans, and then went back to the brutes. He then supplied himself with some plasma grenades and a strangely colored plasma rifle. He then continued through the door into a higher part of the base.

Poli had wandered around the deserted human base for a few minutes, until he came to a destroyed flight of stairs. The stairs had a 2-meter hole blown in the center of it. Poli had searched this entire floor and found nothing else leading up, so he holstered his weapon and ran as fast as he could toward the stairs. He put all of his strength into his leg muscles as he neared the hole. When he was just inches from the hole he leaped high into the air. While in the air, he looked down into a 50-meter drop to the ground below. He cleared the hole with a few inches to spare, and almost tumbled backward into the hole, but quickly regained his balance. He climbed the remaining stairs. When he reached the top of the stairs there was a single hallway painted in various colors of blood, with a single door at the end. The humans must have made a desperate last stand here, and won, since the base was not swarming with Covenant. He ran through the eerily silent hallway, often checking if any one was sneaking up behind him. Poli had the feeling he was being watched, so he picked up is pace. When he reached the end, he could not take it anymore, and threw himself into the door forcing it open. The humans outside the door would have noticed if they were not preoccupied, firing at the group of pinned down Covenant. Poli quickly dashed behind the cover of some rocks and thought of a plan.

After going over the plan several times in his head, he was sure that it was a good one. He took a humangrenade from his ammo pouch; all covenant had been trained in the detonation time of human grenades, three seconds. He pulled the pin, tossed the grenade, and counted to three.

"One. Two." he though to himself.

When he reached three, he burst from his cover and fired several rounds of plasma at the humans. He had timed his attack perfectly. The grenade detonated just as the first shot was fired. The humans were completely caught off guard. About ten of them had been killed in the initial assault, and the majority had turned their attention to Poli His plan had worked, he distracted them long enough so the Covenant they were originally fighting to advance upon them Poli quickly retreated back to his cover as the humans began to fire at him. Poli the heard a low buzzing of plasma weapons and the noise from the human weapons seemed to get quieter and quieter, until all was silent.

Poli cautiously step out from his cover to see the group of Covenant he had helped to save. The grunts and jackals glanced at him, but the elites simply ignored him as they gave orders too their troops.

"We need to get back to our forces on the front line." Poli heard an elite wearing Spec. Ops. armor say.

"We'll move up from the side of the human defenses and flank them, grunts and jackals in front, elites in back. The hunter pair will provide cover with their cannons."

The group of about 20 soldiers began to move towards the East, where gunfire and explosions could be seen. Poli decided he would be better off with a group than by himself, so he ran in line with the group. They ran until they came about 100 meters towards the humans' main defensive line. The elite with Spec. Ops. armor turned to the group and said,

"Many of our commanders have been lost to the snipers over there." He pointed towards a heavily fortified tree line.

"If we don't kill those snipers then our troops' morale will soon be gone."

"I'm the only one here with camouflage so I will be the one to kill them."

"The rest of you will assist our brothers. Half of you will stay here and prepare to flank the enemy on my command, and the other halfwill move behind enemy line from that mountain pass and attack from the rear." He ordered quickly

"We don't have much time, now move!" he added

He then turned on his camouflage and disappeared. The elite left in charge wore a shiny red armor. He designated which soldiers would flank, and which would more behind them. Poli had been assigned the move to the rear or the humans' line. He had his doubt when he was first assigned to the duty, since it seemed the elite ordered most of the soldiers to flank. However, those concerns were put to rest as the veteran order the hunter pair to go with them. The flanking group set down behind some rocks and awaited the order to attack, while Poli's group moved towers the pass.

Poli's group, which consisted of three elites, ten grunts, and the hunter pair, moved quickly, but quietly on the side of the mountain. When they almost had reached the end of the pass the encounters a human patrol. The elites quickly order the troops to hide themselves. The elites then decided on what plan of action to take.

"We have to kill, them" on Elite said "We're too far to turn back, and we don't know where they are going."

"But" another elite interrupted, "If we kill them the other humans might become aware of out presence and the element of surprise will be lost."

"If they find us however" the third elite joined in "We will be found for sure. I suggest we kill them as quietly as possible and continue on." Outnumbered, the second elite had no choice but the accept the plan.

"Very well, we will stay concealed here, and when they pass we will kill them with our swords." The other troops moved further behind the rocks and crouched down. The elites pressed themselves up against a rock wall and awaited the humans.

- - - - - -

PFC Peters and his patrol were assigned to keep their defensive flank secure. They had already been patrolling the mountain pass for hours and found nothing. However, they had recently lost contact with Alpha base, which was only one-kilometer from the pass, so this time around they were more vigilant than normal. Peters was on point so he kept his sight down the pass, watching for anything that was out of place. He halted when he saw a cluster of rocks. The rest of the patrol stopped with them.

"Those rocks are large enough for someone to hide behind." Peters said. "George, use your heat sensors." He ordered quietly.

"Got it, George replied." He pulled down his heat sensing goggles over his eyes. Section III had just issued the heat sensors. Guaranteed to pick up any heat signatures through any surface ranging up to 20 feet thick. After they were over his eyes, he flipped the switch and turned them on. He zoomed in on the rocks and saw the outline of the three elites.

"Yeah" he said, "I got three elites, and I'm checking for more." He zoomed in farther and felt his knees begin to give as he saw the outline of a hunter pair and about ten grunts.

"Oh shit…," he muttered.

"What is it?" peters asked "More Elites?"

"Hu-hunters" was all he managed to say. He quickly regained his composure and informed the patrol of the grunts. "I don't know if there more. If there are, they're out of range."

"Damn" Peters muttered, "We can't take on that kind of firepower alone, radio HQ and send for reinforcements." "We're going to hold here and wait for them to arrive."

"But, but what if they move before they get here?" a young marine asked.

"Then we'll take down as many as we can" Peters said gravely. This only further upset his group of ten marines. Only him and George and seen combat, and the rest of them looked ready to bail out. If they attacked the patrol, they were done for.

"Don't worry" Peters' reassured them. " They're probably waiting to ambush us, so they won't come out form behind those rocks unless they find out we know they're there, and how the hell would they find that out?" he smiled.

- - - - - -

Inhamee had noticed that the humans' scents had not gotten any stronger. This could mean they were just holding position, until Inhamee heard one of the humans say, "Radio HQ". They had been discovered and if they waited any longer more humans would come.

"They know we're here," he said to the rest of his squad. "We must attack now or we will soon be outnumbered." He said. "Hunters, move out first and lay waste to them!" knowing that two hunters were more than a match for the humans. In addition, he did not want to risk any of his squad. If reinforcements were coming, he would need all of them, even the grunts.

The hunters roared in approval and ran out from behind cover. They hunched down behind their shields', took aim and fired their enormous cannons.

- - - - - -

"Reinforcements will be there in ten minutes, hang tight, HQ out." Peters' squad was relived when they all heard this over their helmet radios. Seconds after the transmission, the two hunters jumped from their cover and fired at them.

Their first two shots struck the ground near five of the marines killing four of them and mortally wounding another.

"Shit! Marines open fire!" Peters screamed as he dropped to his belly and opened fire at the walking tanks. The bullets bounced harmlessly of their shields, as their guns recharged and they fired another volley. This one hitting Peters directly, sending chunks of his burnt flesh everywhere. The remaining marines panicked and began to retreat. One brave marine managed to throw a grenade at the pair. The grenade managed to pass on of the hunters' shield and sent fragments flying into its back when it exploded.

- - - - - -

Rhanyee had seen his bond brother die, which sent him into a rage. He lowered his shield and ran at full force towards the retreating humans. When he reached the first human, he slashed at him with his shield, snapping his spine in two in the process. He then fired his cannon towards the other three humans, and scored a direct hit, killing them all. He then began to run towards the human camp.

Inhamee saw the hunter run off and knew nothing he could do would stop him. He only hoped that he was able to weaken their defenses enough so they could slip by. He ordered the rest of the squad forward, and they followed the hunter. They quickly lost sight of the hunter, as he sped forward to avenge his fallen brother. Within another minute they heard human gunfire, followed by screams of pain coming from the humans that had dared to stand in the hunter's way. When they reached the source of the gunfire they saw burnt flesh scattered amongst the ground. They pushed on hoping to catch up.

The eventually reached the en of the pass and saw more burnt flesh, and human bodies bent and twisted in unnatural positions. Having reached a good enough position, they radioed the Spec Ops. elite for their orders.

- - - - - -

Polimee had snuck past the majority of the humans forces, thanks to his camouflage. He neared the tree line where the snipers were positioned. Plasma fire was directed towards them, but the distance was too great and the shots missed their marks. He approached the edge of the tree line and saw the five snipers that were laying waste with the Covenant forces. It was a perfect position to snipe from, but they had not counted on being ambushed, so their were no other guards around them. Polimee took advantage of this, crept behind them, and took out his energy sword. Instead of rushing in, he took out a plasma grenade and tossed it towards the humans. It struck one human in the head and fused with his helmet. He panicked fell backwards towards two other humans. The grenade detonated, and killed all three of them. Polimee then leapt at the other two, and quickly slit their throats. He saw more humans coming to investigate the noise, and he quickly powered down his swords, and re-engaged his camouflage. He darted away from the tree line and headed back towards his allies that were in flanking position. A transmission then came through his radio.

"We're in position behind the enemy, should attack?" the elite questioned.

"Yes, good luck in battle my brother. I have successfully eliminated the snipers so they will be no threat to you."

"Understood sir, moving to attack now." The radio then went silent. He then radioed the soldiers in flanking position, "Commence the attack."

- - - - - -

Poli and the rest of the squad were moving towards the humans positions. They had seen the hunter's dead body a few hundred meters back. He had taken at least 25 humans with him. The elite in charge had been talking on his radio. When he stopped, he turned to the rest of them and barked, "We have a green light to attack, and the snipers are dead so they won't cause us any trouble."

"The flanking group has already started to fight, so the enemy will already be confused. Our job is to split the humans' defenses in two and give our main attack force a chance to gain some ground. You may fire at will."

Poli still had the plasma rifle he acquired of the dead brute, and he was eager to try it out. They were in range after another 30 seconds of running, and the humans were too busy fighting the main force, and the flanking force. Soon, they will be surrounded and be forced to back into a corner. Poli was one of the first to fire, and was surprised to see that his plasma rifle fired red bursts of plasma instead of blue. He also soon realized that these guns overheated much faster than the standard issue. He did not show much concern as he let his gun cool down, and began firing again, this time in shorter bursts.

The first volley had caught the humans completely off guard as they turned to see another group coming at their rear. They shot at the advancing group only to be shot in the backs by the now very close flanking group. The humans' numbers quickly dwindled as both groups came closer. Some humans began to flee, only to be met by the end of the valley they were defending, or the main attack force they had forgotten about. Poli had killed at least five humans before they reached the humans defense line. They jumped into the trench the humans had dug and split into two groups. Poli had gone with the group heading away from the rest of the forces to deal with the lucky humans that had managed to get away.

By the time they had reached the end of the trench, there were no more humans to kill. Poli was disappointed that he had not gotten any more kills, but was simply happy to still be alive. The shock of the battle had finally set it and he felt himself become dizzy as he just realized what eh had survived this night, he hah survived being shot down, captured by humans, and the biggest battle he had ever been apart of. He was about to faint when he heard an elite with gold armor point to him and question, "Grunt, where did you get that strange colored rifle?"

"He had never seen was either." Poli thought. He was also nervous that such a high-ranking elite had addressed him.

He quickly stammered, "Your, your excellently, I acquired it from a fallen brute, I had no other weapons please forgive me."

"Don't worry" he reassured him. "Board that dropship that's going back to our base and show it to the elite in charge."

"Yes your Excellency." Poli quickly replied, overjoyed that he was going back to base. He boarded the dropship and only ten seconds after it took off, Poli was fast asleep.


	4. Massacre

Just Cannon Fodder

Massacre

September 27th, 2552

Covenant Dropship

En route to Covenant base

Poli had slept on the dropship for at least 10 whole units until the pilot jerked him awake.

"We've landed. You need to hurry and see Lieutenant Palimee, it would not be wise to keep him waiting long." He warned,

"Thank you you're Excellency, I will get going." Poli gulped at the thought of what the lieutenant would do to him if he were late. He exited the ship first and hurried towards the command post. The Covenant base was stationed inside an abandoned human city that had been captured a few weeks ago by the covenant. Poli had always been told the humans were barbaric, but he was amazed at the human city's tall buildings. He passed grunt barracks on the way to the command post. Poli stopped walking and glanced at them. He wanted to do nothing but to be amongst his brothers and rest some more, but he pushed on. Poli walked past some of the Brutes barracks too. If they were not before, they were defiantly in this battle now. When he neared the heavily guarded building the Lieutenant was residing in, an alarm rose from his methane tanks. He had only one unit of methane left. It would have most likely been enough to make it through the meeting, but Poli decided to march back towards the grunt barrack to refill his tanks anyway.

He retraced his steps until he found himself standing in front of the main building in the center of the grunts barracks. On the way, he noticed that the brute barracks, which had once been filled with activity, seemed empty. He pushed that thought aside as he neared the refill center. He entered and spotted the methane refill station with the longest line. "Anything to stay out of the command post longer." He thought to himself. He waited for about half a unit, talking amongst his brothers while he waited. They were not allowed to speak their native language while on duty so they spoke Covenant basic instead. Poli had realized long ago that he was exceptionally proficient with this language, being able to speak it almost as well as the Elites. When he finally reached the front of the line, he steeped into the small room where the tanks were refilled. As the door closed behind him, he heard a soft hiss as the room decompressed, and then became filled with methane. He took of his breathing apparatus and took one of the deepest breaths he had ever taken. It felt good to breath on his own, even if it was only for a few seconds. The grunt that operated the station handed him back his tank, and assisted Poli with putting it back on. He took a few breaths to reassure himself that it was on properly, before stepping out. As he stepped between the two doors that cut off the refill station and the barracks, he felt the room become warmer as it filled again with oxygen. As the second door opened, an explosion shook the ground beneath Poli as the lights went out and both of the doors malfunctioned and opened, killing the grunts behind him without their tanks on. Poli ran out into the hundreds of panicking and screaming grunts. From a distance, he could see a building explode in a brilliant flash of light. Poli guessed it was the bases power generator because all the lights in the camp went off. Earth's sun had not begun to rise yet so the base was blanketed in darkness.

"What's happening?" a grunt next to Poli screamed.

Poli heard questions like this from all the grunts. This mass confusion lasted until an elite burst through the door and shouted,

"The base is under attack! Grab your weapons and move to defend the command post!"

"The humans attack us?" a grunt asked.

"No..." the elite said gravely, his eyes filled with rage. "The brutes have betrayed us."

All the grunts in the room were horrified at such a thought. Betrayal was not something that happened in the covenant.

"That's not all," the elite added. "The jackals and the drones have also sided with them. The hunters were undecided at first, but have sided with us after their barracks were attacked."

"That's all you need to know, now move! There are many elders in the command post and we can not afford lose them!"

Poli kept the strange red plasma rifle he had acquired earlier, but decided the grab an extra standard issue plasma rifle just incase the red one ran out of ammo. He filed out of the barracks with the rest of the grunts and heard an elite yell to him and fifty others,

"Move out with elite squad 32 towards the fuel depots and defend them with your lives!"

Poli ran to where the elite commander was pointing and began to listen to the elite that as in charge of squad 32 called to the grunts that had just joined his ranks,

"Grunts will move through the main street and plow their way through towards the fuel depots. The elites will move through the alleys and provide watch for jackal sharpshooters on the rooftops."

"Typical" Poli thought to himself. The grunts ran head first into death while the elites stayed safe while they claimed the glory for themselves. Poli had often thought of betraying the covenant, throwing a plasma grenade into a group of elites, maybe even a prophet, but never had the courage to do so. Poli had no other choice but to follow orders, or he would be called a heretic, tortured, and finally killed. After a long thought process, Poli decided he had a better chance of survival if he fought.

Poli's group ran towards the fuel depots the elite had pointed to. The group of grunts formed a box to cover their flanks, rear, and their front at once, with equal force on all sides. There was one thing that was not covered by the formation though, above. Jackal sharpshooters emerged from their hiding places on the roofs of the tall humans buildings. The jackals began to fire and grunts began to die before they hit the ground. A lucky shot clipped a grenade clipped to one grunt's belt and it exploded, taking out ten grunts with it. Grunts took cover behind anything they could, but it was of no use, the jackals were too high up and they could still get clear shots of no matter where the grunts hid. The grunts' numbers were dwindled down to about 50 percent when the elites burst from their hiding place, along with a number of hunters. They fired wave after wave of plasma at the jackals' positions, eventually burning away at the metal the jackals were hiding behind. The hunters' cannons tore through the buildings and made one of the roofs collapse, killing anything else that was hiding in that particular building. Grunts slowly began to regain their composure and fired upwards to the jackals, which had now been exposed from their cover. With the combines fired from the elite, hunters, and now the grunts, the jackals' numbers quickly died down. Once all the snipers were dead, the elites rallied the remaining grunts as they pushed on further towards the fuel depots. There were no other encounters as they neared the depots, any other jackals that might have been hiding decided to stay hidden after seeing the massacre that had just occurred. When the depots came into full view, Poli could see a group of elites and a few grunts making a last stand at the depots entrance, brutes quickly advancing upon their position. The elite commander growled to his warriors,

"Hunters! Fire at the traitors closest to our brothers, we can not let that position be overrun!"

The three pairs of hunters dropped their shield as they hunched over, took aim, and unleashed a massive volley of boiling plasma towards the brutes. A few of the brutes saw the incoming plasma and tried to warm their comrades, but were too late as the first volley impacted and killed a great number of brutes, sending body parts and blood everywhere.. The soldiers defending the depots let out a battle cry, as they charged towards the confused and panicked brutes with renewed energy. The charging elites took out their energy swords and ran straight at the brutes' positions. The elite commander of Poli's group shouted to his troops,

"Advance towards them, fire at will!"

For some reason, Poli wanted to be the first in battle, first to avenge his fallen kin. He ran towards the brutes, closely following the elites that were naturally faster then him. He soon found himself right at the center of the battle. Poli eyed a brute charging a pack of three grunts. Poli aimed his red plasma rifle at the charging brute. He pulled the trigger, and red plasma flew at the brute. The majority of his shots missed, the range too great, but one shot hit the brute's knee. The brute slowed as blood flowed from the wound, but did not slow his pace. However, the slowed pace of the brute allowed the three grunts time to level their weapons at him. As they fired, the brute was quickly overwhelmed as plasma impacted all over his body, and he fell to the ground, dead. The brutes were outnumbered and were quickly losing ground. Poli watched as brute after brute fell to the rage of the elites. The battle seemed to be over, only ten brutes remaining, when Poli eyed a blue wall approaching the battlefield. Poli squinted, hoping to get a better view.

When he realized what was approaching, he yelled to the elite closest to him, "Jackals! Lots of them!"

A few elites heard him, and turned their full attention to the incoming jackals.

"Hunters!" on of them yelled, "Attack their lines!" When no answer came, he looked back to see all but two of the hunters dead, having been blindsided by brute reinforcements. The two survivors were preoccupied in dealing with new enemies.

One elite with the blue armor of a rookie, dropped his weapon, and pulled out his plasma sword. He charged at the incoming jackals at full charge.

"Wait!" an elite wearing red armor called out to him, but if fell on deaf ears, as the elite charged on. As the elite neared the jackal line, they all opened fire at once. The massive amounts of plasma hitting his shield overloaded the immediately. The remaining plasma impacted the elite's armor, burning through it immediately, and his flesh burned along with it. His limp body dropped to the ground. The jackal closed in further, stepping over the elite's dead body. The brutes behind Poli had rallied and were finished off the last hunter. As the hunter fell, the brute began to approach the twenty or so grunts and five elites. The five elites roared and charged at the brutes, plasma swords at the ready. As they got closer, they began slicing away at the brutes, sometimes hitting two at a time. Poli watched as the brutes slowly began to overwhelm the elites and beat down on them with their massive fists. The last two elites put their backs against one another, and made a last attempt to slay the traitors. They quickly succumbed to the brutes' might and numbers. The elites' charge had cut the brutes numbers down to three, but the dozens of jackals were still quickly approaching the grunts. The grunts turned and fired at the brutes, since they were the closest. The brutes did not expect the grunts o fire upon them, and their surprise kept them from returning fire as the plasma singed their rough hide. Poli ceased firing and turned his attention back to the jackals. They were easily 50 meters away now. After the brutes had been dealt with, the grunts faced the jackals. They again opened fire, but found it useless as the plasma bounced harmlessly off the jackals' shields. Some grunts fled in panic, seeing the hopeless situation they were faced with. Poli and ten grunts however, held their ground.

"What we do now?" one grunt next to Poli asked, never taking his eyes off the jackals.

They were still out of firing range, so Poli had a moment to think. After a few seconds, he came up with a plan. "Ok, here's what we do" Poli said to the grunts around him. "When they get closer, throw your plasma grenades behind their shield. That should take care of most of them, and the ones that live will be easy targets." Poli said, the other grunts nodding their heads in agreement.

The jackals were close to being in range now. Poli pulled a plasma grenade from his satchel, primed it, and threw it with deadly accuracy towards the jackals. All grunts had trained extensively at throwing grenades; they could throw them almost as far as the elites, and just as accurate.

The other grunts followed suit, as they also threw their grenades at them. Poli threw his two remaining grenades. As his last grenade hit the ground behind the jackal line, the grenades exploded, causing a brilliant display of blue plasma, and body parts. The few jackals that survived the explosion were knocked off balance, exposing their fragile bodies.

"Fire!" Poli screamed. As one, the pack of grunts discharged their plasma pistols and rifles. A few grunts overcharged their pistols, and fired them at any jackals that had managed to get its shield up. The overcharged pistol rounds overheated the jackals' shields, rendering them useless. After another minute of firing, the jackals were all dead, and the grunts cheered in victory.

Behind them, the fuel depots exploded. The jackals had just been a distraction that had allowed a team of brutes to set up bombs around the perimeter of the depots. Similar explosion occurred all around the camp, destroying the grunt barracks, elite barracks, and command posts. A trio of dropships flew away from the base. The pilots spotted the eleven grunts below, and landed a few dozen meters away from them. The grunts hesitated, not know if they were friendly or not. However, when an elite emerged from the ramp and shouted to them, "Hurry, this battle is lost, we must flee!" the grunts eagerly darted towards the ramps. Poli was one of the last to board a ship, making sure no one was being left behind. As he entered the dropship, the ramp closed behind him, and he felt to dropship lift off the ground, and then accelerate.

"What we do now?" a grunt in the dropship asked.

"Simple." An elite wearing shiny white armor replied, "We take the fight to the brutes."


	5. Revenge

Just Cannon Fodder

Revenge

"_We take the fight to the brutes_." The elite's words echoed in everyone's ears, even the other elites in the dropships.

The grunt who asked the question found the courage to do so once more, "How we do that Excellency?" he asked, hoping he did not offend the high-ranking elite. Much to everyone's surprise, he elite remained relatively calm and spoke once more to the grunt.

"In time, you shall see little one, but for now we must deal with the situation at hand." He began, looking at the weary eyes of the survivors in the small ship. "We must link up with any other who survived the brute's betrayal, and then the brutes shall taste our fury!" several elites and grunts cheered with approval but the rest remained quiet, except one elite.

"There lies the problem however." The elite said, a Spec Ops. Poli figured since he wore jet-black armor that was stained with blood, some of it was his own. "We don't know how many, or if any of our brothers survived this attack." The white armored elite glanced at him and then look back at the rest of the dropship's occupants. A small smile appeared on his face.

"Actually," he began "Only a minute ago we received word from one of the other ships that they have picked up a distress signal from a group of our brothers only 10 units from here." Every elite sat a little straighter after hearing these words, eager to get back into battle. "We shall assist them and strike back and the brutes and avenge the blood of our brother that has been spilt!" he shouted. A roar of approval echoed through the dropship. Poli also joined in. 'The brutes shall pay for what they have done' he thought, as he remembered watching brutes tear grunts apart. Poli could not wait to get back into battle.

The pilot cut the celebration short when he called out from the cockpit, "Prepare yourselves, we are nearing the origin point of the distress signal. Good luck my brothers." A second later Poli could feel his ears pop as the dropship began to descend. The dropship's doors opened and revealed treetops racing beneath them. Poli almost stumbled out but regained his balance before he fell to his death.

"These ships are key to our victory, so we can't risk them being destroyed by landing" the elite in white armor called out, his voice swallowed by the noise outside. Several cries of fear arose from the grunts. "We have to jump, try and use the treetops to slow yourself down, good luck." He said as he leapt out of the dropship, disappearing into the forest below. The other elites followed suit and jumped right after the commander. The grunts however, were more skeptical, except for Poli that is.

With a battle cry, Poli leapt out of the ship. He saw the trees were coming up on his fast, and curled in a semi-ball to soften the blow. His body collided with a branch as he passed through the treetops. The branch was ripped from the tree and Poli stayed in his freefall, now with a sore arm. The branch slowed him down shortly, but his body picked up speed again. Poli saw that he approaching another branch, fast. This one was larger than the last, and Poli hoped it could support his weight. He tucked in his knee and he glided to the left. When he was within throwing distance of the branch he stretched out his arms. When he fell past the branch, he dug his claws into the side of it. His momentum abruptly stopped and it felt as though his arms would be ripped from their sockets, but they remained intact. Poli breathed a sigh of relief and looked down. He was five meters from the ground. 'If I hadn't done that I would have been crushed.' He thought to himself. He took a moment to catch his breath before pulling his claws out of the branch. He fell the five meters and landed with a 'thud'. The fall was not long enough to cause any serious damage, but it was still long enough to hurt like hell.

Poli rolled onto his stomach and pushed himself up. Pain coursed through his shoulders as he put his weight on them. Poli ignored this and stood on his feet. He surveyed the surrounding area, looking to see if anyone else had made it. In the distance, he saw a few elites and grunts that were in his dropship wave over to him. Poli ran over to them as fast as his stubby legs could carry him. He was ten meters away from them when a grenade from a brute shot flew into them, and blew them apart. Poli ran behind a tree for cover, a grenade exploding where stood only a few seconds ago. He poked his head out from behind the tree to see where the attack came from. A brute emerged from the treeline and fired again at Poli. Poli leapt away from the tree and rolled to his feet, he reached for his plasma rifle. His heart nearly stopped when he could not find it, and realized it must have come off his belt when he hit the first branch. Panicking, he reached into his grenade pouch, hoping they were still intact. Sure enough, Poli pulled a plasma grenade out of the pouch. Poli primed it and threw it straight at the brute's head.

The brute saw it coming however, and jumped out of the way just in time to avoid the explosion. 'I have to get closer.' Poli thought. 'But how?' Poli then thought of a brilliant plan. The brute would not stop until Poli was dead, even if he had to chase him. Poli turned and ran back into the forest, and came to the spot he had landed. He saw a large bush that would conceal him enough to hide from the brute. Sure enough, the brute came charging after Poli, intent on crushing him. When he came to the clearing Poli had ran to he looked around in confusion. He began sniffing the air to find the grunt's scent. Poli knew it would not be long until he was discovered. He pulled his last plasma grenade out of his pouch and hurled it at the brute.

Finding the scent, the brute turned to where it originated from, only to find a ball of blue plasma flying at him. He tried to duck, but it nicked the top of his head, and fused with it. "Nooooooo!" he cried trying in vain to pry it off him. The grenade exploded, sending flesh and black blood everywhere. Poli waddled out from behind to bush to examine his work. He looked around, and saw that the brute's plasma rifle had been thrown at least ten meters from the explosion. Poli ran over and picked it up. He wiped the black blood that was on it off on the snow, and saw that like the one he had seen earlier, it was red. Poli remembered that the red rifles were more powerful, and he was glad to have it.

Before he could try to find the rest if his squad, a second brute appeared at the bush he was at not thirty seconds ago. The brute charged, in pain after seeing its blood brother be killed by a grunt. Poli aimed the red plasma rifle at him and pulled the trigger. A steady volley of red plasma flew at the beast, several hitting his stomach and the rest hitting his legs. The brute did not slow however; he intended to get revenge for his fallen brother. Poli fired one last shot at the brute and then his rifle overheated, dumping red plasma all over Poli's hands. Poli was about to drop the burning hot rifle from his hands but then decided on something else. He raised his arm ignoring the heat that was now on his face, and threw the rifle at the oncoming brute. The rifle landed on the brute's face and he howled in pain as the skin on is face melted away, revealing flesh and bone. The brute put its hands over its face to try to keep the skin from falling off. Poli took advantage of this and dashed at the brute, claws extended. Poli ran right next to the brute, who was still screaming in pain. He then dug his claws right behind the massive brute's kneecap, and the brute dropped to one knee. Poli then dug the claws on his free hand into the brute's now reachable neck. The brute let out one final cry of pain before dropping to the ground, dead.

Poli gathered his thoughts and retrieved his now cooled plasma rifle. He turned to the direction where the group of elites and grunts stood before they were killed. Past where they were, he could see the distant image of a battle. It was at least 300 meters away and Poli doubted if he could make it in time, but he had to try. He strapped his plasma rifle to his belt, policed several plasma grenades and an addition plasma rifle from the brute he had just killed and put them in pouches also. He then ran as fast as he had ever run before towards the battlefield that seemed to call to him.

In about 3 minutes, Poli had positioned himself directly behind the brutes and jackals that had pinned down the remaining elites and grunts. He hid himself behind a rock as he formulated a plan. 'Okay' he thought to himself, 'That will have to do.'

Poli took off his grenade pouch from his belt and took out one grenade from it. He then wound up and threw the pouch right into the center of the brute's positions. 'Good, they didn't notice.' He then activated the one grenade he had saved and threw it towards the pouch which and still gone unnoticed. When they were not in battle, grunts spent most of their free time in training grounds, practicing throwing grenades, since it was one of the only ways grunts could effectively kill. Poli had trained long and hard, hoping to set himself apart form the other grunts. Poli hoped that all his training had paid off as the grenade sailed through the air. It was a long throw, about twenty meters, but Poli's aim had been perfect as it landed directly on the grenade pouch and fused to it. Poli unclipped both of his red plasma pistols and burst from his cover, but he did not fire just yet. The grenade on the pouch only took five seconds to explode, but it felt like a lifetime to Poli. When it finally went off, it caused a chain reaction causing the six other grenades he had stuffed in the pouch to explode at once, including some plasma grenades a few unlucky brutes had in their possession.

The explosion came as a complete surprise to the brutes. The massive display of plasma had killed two thirds of their force, and they did not even know what caused it. Poli then opened fire with both of his rifles, making sure not to let them overheat. He aimed both of them at one target, causing double the damage. He killed four brutes before they realized where the attack had come from. When they did however, they were taken by surprise as they saw a lone grunt firing at them. The surprise did not last though, as several brutes fired their brute shots at Poli. He had been expecting this however, and Poli was quick to jump back behind the rock he had been hiding behind before. The rock shook as a grenade hit it, but Poli remained unharmed. The brutes began to advance on Poli, forgetting about the elites they were previously dominating.

A roar caught the attention of the brutes as they turned to see what had caused it. The sight they saw was not a pleasant one; ten elites charged them with their deadly plasma swords. Before the brutes could react to them, Poli emerged from his cover again and resumed his onslaught. The remaining jackals formed a barrier with heir shields to protect he brutes, but they could not protect them from the elites. The brutes were slaughtered before they could retaliate, as the elites slashed their way through the brute's unshielded skin, cutting off limbs and heads. Within a minute every brute and jackal was dead, and missing portions of their bodies.

Poli then emerged from his cover once more and approached the elites.

"Where are the rest of your allies?" an elite in gold armor asked Poli.

"I am alone Excellency." Poli replied, hoping the elite believed him.

The elite laughed at his answer. 'I guess everything hasn't changed' Poli thought to himself. "Impossible, a mere grunt cannot accomplish such a task!" the elite scoffed.

"Why not!" Poli yelled in defiance. The elite became infuriated, but quickly got himself under control.

"It does not matter," he began. "More of our brothers are fighting not two units from here; we must hurry and assist them." He said as he pointed through the forest. The force of elites and grunts moved off towards the area where the elite had pointed. Poli figured he had no choice but to follow, so he fell in line with the few grunts that had survived.

Poli swore he could hear a buzzing noise in the sky, but did not dare to voice his concerns, fearing he might push the elite in gold armor too far. Seconds later, he wish he did say something, as ten pelican dropships landed around them. Dozens of marines ran from the back of the transports and pointed their weapons at the group of aliens.

"Drop the weapons uglies!" one marine shouted. The grunts complied, but the elites were not too content on surrendering. One elite ignited his sword and charged at the human that had dared to give him and order. Before he could even take two steps, every marine opened fire. The elite's shield instantly disappeared and he was consumed in a hail of bullets.

"Anyone else wanna try something?" the same marine asked. This time, every elite dropped their weapons, knowing they were defeated.

"Get in" another marine said, pointing to the pelicans. Poli shuffled towards a nearby pelican and climbed up the ramp leading to the pelican, several guns trained on him the entire time. Poli sat down on one of the benches in the ship, and was pushed off by a human. As he fell to the floor several marine laughed at him. Poli sighed, 'This is going to be a long day…' he thought as the pelican took off and began it's journey to an unknown location.


	6. The felling's mutual

Just Cannon Fodder

The Feeling's Mutual

Poli watched the scenery from the open back of the pelican as the humans transported them to some place were they would most likely be interrogated and killed. Strangely, he felt rather peaceful considering the situation he was in. They had been flying for about two units, flying over forests, deserts, and bodies of water along the way. Several grunts and elites were wounded their blood staining the metal interior of the dropship. Two grunts had died during the journey thus far, and their bodies were unceremoniously dumped out the back of the ship. Not that it mattered anyway; the grunts had given up burying their dead long ago. The most Poli had ever seen done to dead grunts was them being moved out of the way so more could press on.

"Sir!" the human pilot called out to someone. A human that was sitting across from Poli stood up and walked into the cockpit.

"What is it?" Poli could hear the man say.

"Radar shows twenty seraph fighting incoming sir." A third man in the cockpit said. The humans in the Pelican became uneasy, shifting in their seats, but never taking their eyes off their prisoners.

"What do you recommend we do corporal?" the man obviously in charge asked. 'How strange' Poli thought to himself. 'A commanding officer asking the opinions of his soldiers.

"Sir, they outnumber us two-to-one, recommend we bug out." The pilot said to the man, and Poli agreed.

"I agree but..." the man sighed, "Those seraphs are heading straight for our base. Send a transmission to Lieutenant Miller warning him about this."

"Aye, sir." The third man in the cockpit replied. There was a slight pause until he spoke again. "Transmission sent sir, but the Lieutenant said he can't send any reinforcement to us at the time." He said with a small trace of fear evident in his voice.

The commanding officer paused shortly then said to the pilot, "We have a duty to carry out. Tell our wingmen to prepare for battle." A silence washed over the dropship as the human's words sank in.

"But sir," one human called out, but the man quickly cut him off with a hand gesture.

"No buts son, if those covenant reach our base in full force they'll be overrun, we have to take down as many with us as we can." He said to you nervous human, but it did nothing to calm him down.

"Sir the seraphs are 500 kilometers away, moving into attack positions." The pilot called out as the ship lurched to the side.

"Close the hatch!" one human yelled as he almost stumbled out of the pelican. On cue, the back door closed and the dropship became darker as the pilot diverted more energy to the weapons. "Here they come! Hold on!" the pilot yelled. A few seconds later the whole ship rattled as its machine guns fired. The ship then spun violently to the right and the sections of the hull melted away as plasma hit the ship.

"What the fucks going on?" a humans shouted as he went to check on the pilot. "Oh shit, they're dead!" he yelled in a panic.

"Get on the controls!" the commanding human called out to him. The marine slowly crept into the cockpit and disappeared from sight. A few seconds later, he ran out and said, "The control are fried, they got hit with plasma."

The commanding human, who was once relatively calm, now became panicked, "Oh Jesus we're gonna die!" he shouted. Seeing their commander lose his cool sent all the other humans in a state of panic also. One elite took advantage of this. The humans had not retrained them in anyway, except for making the elites disable their shields. The elite jumped from his seat and snapped the closest human's neck. A second human turned to fire at him, but dropped to the ground as Poli jumped on his back. The humans struggled to get free, but to no avail as Poli kept his grip around his neck. With his free hand, Poli began bashing his fist against the human's skull. After hitting him a few more times the human stopped moving as the back of his head bled profusely.

Poli looked up to see the once prisoners rebelling against the humans. Caught completely off guard, the humans did not put up much of a fight, not even getting off one shot. No one in the dropship seemed to notice the sudden rise in pressure as the craft sped down to Earth. The pelican slammed into the round at 200 MPH, sending everyone in the ship flying off their feet. Poli felt his head bounce off the roof of the ship and his vision slowly went black as he lost consciousness.

--------

"Gather any human weapons you can and move outside." Were the first words Poli heard as he reawakened. He got up to his knees and saw a puddle of blood were he had been lying, his blood he realized. He slowly stood to his feet as he tried to get his bearings. His vision was blurry but he managed to make it outside of the dropship, only to fall into a small crater the ship had made. He shook his head and rubbed his eyes to clear his vision. Once he could see straight he climbed out of the crater he had fallen in. When he squirmed out finally, he saw a discarded human pistol lying at his feet. He picked it up and examined the odd-looking weapon. He was not entirely sure how to use it, but figured it would have to do since there were no other weapons that he could see.

He looked to the sky to see how the battle above was going, and saw numerous human ships exploding as the covenant ships took little damage. 'Who were in the ships though' Poli thought. It would be a great stroke of luck if they were controlled by elites, but if there were brutes in them, things would get ugly fast. He looked up again and saw two seraphs flying towards him. He looked closer and saw the guns under the seraphs power up.

"Take cover!" he yelled out as loud as he could as he dove back into the crater he had fallen into. Several elites had not listened to him, thinking he had been overcome with fear, as most grunts do. However, when a hellfire of plasma began to rain down on them, they quickly got the hint and dove for cover.

Poli looked around the area they had crash-landed in. He did not see and other of the humans' ships intact, and the few that he did see, it was obvious nobody in them survived. 'Looks like were on our own…' Poli thought as the two seraphs landed around them. Several brutes floated down the gravity lifts that had been activated and fired their red plasma rifles at the small band of elites and grunts. Poli aimed the human pistol at the closest brute and pulled the trigger, but the trigger did not budge. He pulled again, this time putting more strength into it but still he had no luck. He frantically examined the weapon for any signs of activating it. He looked it over until he found a switch that had a writing he could not understand on it. He flipped the switch and heard a clicking noise in the gun. Poli aimed the gun once more at the now extremely close brute. He pulled the trigger, and this time the weapon fired, the recoil sending his arms flying upward. Poli was surprised at the power of the shot. He aimed at the brute again, who was now breathing down Poli's neck and fired, this time expecting the recoil. This time, the bullet hit the mark, going through and through the brute's neck, putting it down for good. Poli still was not used to the recoil, but he would have to make do.

The first brutes to come out had underestimated them, and they were all killed with no casualties on the ex-covenant side. Before they could celebrate however, ten more brutes and a few jackal snipers emerged from the seraphs. The brutes charged as the jackals stayed behind, pinning them down with accurate fire. Poli fired the pistol at the charging brutes, but found his first shots had been luck, as the bullets inflicted minimal damage. Poli fired the pistol three more times before hearing a 'click' every time he pulled the trigger. He examined the gun again, this time finding a tine button near the grip of the gun. He pushed it and a small metal device fell out, making the gun substantially lighter. Poli yelped and tried to put the device back in, but could not. He looked around again for any sort of weapon. Near where he found the human pistol, he found a device similar to the one that fell out of the gun. He excitedly picked it put and pushed it into the pistol, and this time it stayed in. Poli, feeling triumphant, aimed at another brute and fired. But this time, the trigger moved too easily, and it did not fire. Poli thought back, he had seen humans use this weapon before, but he didn't remember how they had worked them. Suddenly, it came to him, he had once seen a human pull back on the top of the gun before firing. Poli placed his palm on the top of the pistol and pulled back, and was rewarded with the sound of a round being loaded into he chamber. Satisfied, Poli aimed once again and pulled the trigger. He was getting used to the recoil and could now aim quite well, hitting a brute in the head with his first shot. He let the elites take care of the jackals, and let himself concentrate on the brutes that were close to him. He controlled his firing though, not knowing if he could find another one of the devices, 'clips' he remembered for the gun.

Many of the others had run out of ammo, and were engaging the brutes in hand-to-hand combat. One elite, however, a field master Poli recognized, went back into the human ship they had crashed in. He stayed in there for a minute or two, before returning with a huge weapon. Poli had seen these 'rocket launchers' before, and knew the damage they could inflict. The elite pointed the massive gun at a cluster of brutes and pulled the trigger. A 120mm rocket flew towards the unsuspecting brutes. When it hit the ground, a massive explosion killed five brutes, and wounded two other that had been too close.

Having the upper hand, the remaining ex-covenant charged, as the field master fired another rocket at the jackal snipers, killing them in a fiery display. Poli still had a few shots left in his pistol, so he stayed back to pick off the distracted brutes. One brute stood absolutely still has he waited for a charging elite to reach him. Poli took his time and aimed the gun's sights at the motionless brute's head. When the sights centered on the beast's he pulled the trigger twice. Two bullets entered the brute's skull and lodged in his brain.

Poli's pistol ran out of ammo after he killed the brute. Deciding he would be of no help in close combat with no weapon, so he stayed back and watch the elites tear the brutes to shreds, bashing in their skulls with rocks, and biting them with their razor sharp teeth. The outnumbered brutes no match to the elite's superior fighting techniques, as elites dodge their blows with ease. With the immediate threat averted, Poli looked to the sky once more. The seraphs had disappeared, most likely going to attack the base the human had mentioned earlier, thinking the two seraphs would be enough to take care of them.

"Into the seraphs" the field master, now wielding a discarded plasma rifle shouted. "We are to attack the human base." A murmur of confusion washed over the remaining force of elites and grunts. The field master spoke up again to explain, "We will board these two seraphs, and give the brutes attacking the base the impression that we have returned. Once they drop their guard, we will attack those damned brutes from behind, then we will move on to the humans." The elite said, his mandibles forming what could pass as a grin. Satisfied, the force of fourteen ex-covenants boarded the two seraphs, seven in each.

--------

Dedious watched as his brutes laid waste to the pathetic humans, as they struggled to mount a useless counter-attack. "Have the pilots take off and bombard the humans to the west from above, they have gathered a substantial amount of troops over there." He said into his com-link.

"Yes Excellency, it will be done." A voice said into his earpiece. Dedious looked to where the seraphs were and saw several of them take off and approach the humans' positions. When they neared them, the massive plasma turrets on their undersides opened fire. The worthless humans fired their puny weapons at the seraphs, but their bullets bounced harmlessly off their armor. Within a minute, ever human to the west was dead and the seraphs were now heading towards the bulk of the humans' forces.

"Do not engage the rest of the humans, they have set up anti aircraft guns inside their base, they will tear through your ships." Dedious said, seeing what the humans' AA guns could do before. Even though the humans were the sworn enemies of the gods, Dedious had to respect the raw power of some of their weapons commanded. On cue, the seraphs turned back and landed where they had previously been. Beyond them, Dedious could see two ships approaching from the distance.

'Excellent, those heretics have been dealt with.' He thought to himself, as he ordered his troops not to engage the incoming seraphs.

--------

Poli looked at the view screen in the seraph as they approached the battle. His heart rate quickened as several seraphs began to fly towards them, but it returned to normal as they returned to where they were.

"Good, they haven't noticed us yet." The elite piloting the ship said over the com. "We will first destroy those seraphs that we are coming up on; they will be trouble if we allow them to get in the air. Once we have drawn their attention, we will activate the gravity lift and you will begin the attack. Our brothers in the other seraph will set down inside the human base to take care of them." He finished, the ship vibrating as he fired upon the seraphs on the ground.

"Go now!" He yelled as the center of the floor illuminated as the gravity lift activated. Poli was one of the first to enter the lift, as he felt his body being pulled down into battle below.


	7. Two Brids with One Stone

Just Cannon Fodder

Two Birds with One Stone

Poli landed with a soft 'thud' at the bottom of the gravity lift. From his belt, he unhooked a brute plasma rifle that he had acquired in the last battle. There had been more than enough weapons for everybody on the dead brutes, but there were even more weapons in the captured seraphs, meaning everybody, including grunts, had more than enough supplied to last the entire battle.

Poli looked around and saw that a few elites that had landed before him were rallying troops to their positions. Poli stepped out of the gravity field and headed over to the warriors, who were semi-concealed in a treeline. By the time he reached them, several other grunts had begun to scurry over to them. Within minutes, the entire attack force had regrouped at the treeline.

The fieldmaster stepped up and addressed his troops, "The brutes are still unaware of our presence, and we shall make them pay for their lack of security." He began, then he began to speak again, "You will split into two groups, one will attack the brutes from behind, and split their forces between fighting the humans and us. The second will use the beam rifles we found in the seraphs to kill the brutes from afar." He ordered as the two elites next to him began separating the troops into two groups. Poli had been placed in the group that would attack from behind. With him were seven grunts and two elites. In the sniping group, there were two elites along with three grunts to guard them.

The fieldmaster had taken command of Poli's group. He led them through the thick forest that would lead them directly to the brutes' base of operations, as the Spec Ops. Elite led the sniping group deeper into the forest to find a decent position. The fieldmaster stopped walking, and everyone that as following him stopped in unison.

"We have reached the brutes' camp." He said as he pushed a large shrub to the side, revealing the brutes' camp. He then let the shrub move back to where it had been, not wanting to give away their position. He then pointed to one elite and said, "You take those two grunts width the fuel rod cannons and move behind those rocks over there. Draw their attention long enough for us to sneak behind them." The elite immediately took the two grunts and began to make his way over to the rock formation the fieldmaster had pointed out.

"Once they open fire, we will move along the treeline and attack them from behind." The fieldmaster ordered, as he waited for the group to attack.

A minute passed as the group waited for the attack, but it felt like hours. Finally, the hum of plasma filled the air as the two grunts fired their massive cannons at the brute camp. The twin blasts killed eight brutes, wounded several others, and rendered a plasma turret inoperable. Every brute in the area charged at the three ex-covenants. The grunts' fuel rod cannons recharged and they fired yet again, holding the brutes at bay, for now at least.

"Now." The fieldmaster whispered as he darted along the treeline. The others quickly followed, stopping only when a brute got too close. A good seven minutes later, they were directly behind the brute camp and had positioned themselves in a small trench the brutes had left unguarded. Poli looked up to check on the others. They group of three were barely holding their own. The elite had charged out from the rocks and was slashing away at brutes with his plasma sword, and the two grunts were providing cover fire, being careful not to shoot too close to the elite. However, the brutes were slowly overwhelming them, as more and more emerged from the camp.

The fieldmaster turned and told the them, "Most of their forces are pre-occupied, so we should be able to charge directly into their camp." he said, unclipping the hilt of his plasma sword from his belt, as did the other elites. As he began to charge, the sword flashed to life, and the other elites followed closely behind him. Poli, while unable to keep up with the elites, was far ahead of the grunts. Ahead, the elites broke off from the group and went to different parts of the camp, slicing through any brute that came in their way.

Poli unhooked his plasma rifle as a brute came into his vision. The brute had not noticed Poli's presence even as he came within ten feet of him. Poli raised his rifle and squeezed the trigger sending a volley of red plasma directly into the oblivious brute's head. The stronger red plasma vaporized the brute's head, sending his torso falling limply to the ground below.

Poli looked again to the group of three by the rocks. The brute's numbers had overwhelmed the elite, and the grunts' cannons had run out of ammo, forcing them to use their plasma pistols to little effect. Poli ran over to assist them, but was knocked off his feet as a brute shot grenade exploded mere feet away from him. Poli forced himself to his feet, his wounded shoulders hurting now more than ever, and picked us his rifle. He looked over to see where the grenade had come from, and saw a lone brute staring down at him, snarling. The brute raised his brute shot again and fired another grenade at Poli, who had not yet fully recovered his balance. Poli staggered to his left, the grenade missing him by inches. Poli raised his rifle and fired at the brute, but the distance was too great for the plasma to have any serious effect. The brute fired two more time, but both of the grenades went wide and missed Poli completely. The brute began to reload his weapon and momentarily took his eyes off Poli. When the brute finished reloading and looked up, he was greeting by a plasma grenade soaring towards his face. The brute only had time to scream as the grenade struck his face and fused with his skin. A second later, the grenade detonated, sending chunks of steamed flesh flying all over.

The threat dealt with, Poli turned his attention again to the two grunts, and saw that they had been overrun and the brutes were busy tearing off their limbs and fighting over who got to eat them. Two brutes began shouting at each other, both holding a grunt's severed arm, and eventually began exchanging blows as they fought over the arm. The rest of the brutes turned and cheered them on. Poli had turned to run away, but stopped as he heard the fight start. He turned and saw the eight brutes grouped together watching the fight. Poli chuckled to himself as he took two grenades from his pouch. He threw the first one and it landed on the head of one of the brutes. The brutes were taken off guard completely, turning to see who had thrown it, only to see yet another grenade fly towards them. The two grenades exploded almost simultaneously, killing five off the brutes, and burning the arm off another. Poli took out his last grenade and tossed it at the three remaining brutes. The explosion only killed the brute with one arm, as it was in too much pain to notice the grenade, but the others rolled out of the way, and charged at the Poli with heir weapons drawn. Poli fired his plasma rifle, but the brutes ignored the fact that their skin burned under the immense heat of the plasma. The brutes were about ten meters away when Poli's rifle overheated, dumping plasma on Poli's hand. Poli backpedaled, trying to buy himself some time, but the brutes quickened their pace, intent on crushing the grunt. Poli tripped over a rock and stumbled backwards, falling onto his back as the brutes came closer and closer.

Poli tried to stand, but exhaustion finally set in, and he collapsed back on the ground. Poli knew it was over as he closed his eyes and waited for death. His eyes opened again when the sound of hooves caught his ears. When he opened his eyes he saw a bloody elite with a plasma sword kill the two brutes with ease. Poli expected the elite to walk away, leaving Poli to die. Instead, the elite walked over to Poli and extended his hand. Poli was shocked, but quickly grabbed the hand, lest the elite change his mind. When Poli got to his feet, the elite looked down at him, and handed him back his weapon.

"You are skilled for a grunt." The elite said, the bass in his voice causing Poli to tremble.

"T-Thank you your Excellency." Poli stammered, never having received praise from anyone before, especially and elite. The elite then turned and spoke once more to Poli.

"We have taken this base, and our brothers have sent word that they have begun the attack on the human camp." He said, as he began walking away. Poli started to walk with him, hoping he would say more, but the walk was in silence. The elite stopped when the fieldmaster stepped out from the shadows.

"Are you all that's left?" the fieldmaster questioned, breathing heavily. Poli noticed his hand was clutching a deep wound on his chest, and he was limping.

"Yes" the elite said. "Everyone else has been killed by the brutes, but no brutes remain, mostly because of the efforts of the grunt that stands beside me, he is quite skilled." He finished. The fieldmaster paused for a moment, but quickly spoke again.

"I see." He began, pausing to take another raspy breath. "We are too far away from the human camp to walk, so I have radioed one of our seraphs to pick us up." As he spoke, Poli could smell the scent of brutes approaching. He sniffed more rapidly, trying to pinpoint their location.

"Brutes come!" Poli yelled to the two elites, and they stiffened, and their eyes darted from side to side, trying to see what the grunt saw."

"I don't see them." The fieldmaster said. "Where are they?"

Poli pointed and replied, "I smell them." As if on cue, several brutes emerged from the treeline at the opposite side of the base. One of them spotted the group and said something to the brutes with him, pointing at Poli. Soon, every brute knew where they were and they began to charge at them. The two elites by Poli's side ignited their swords and stood ready to fight. Poli lifted his rifle and was ready to assist in battle. Everyone knew that they stood no chance in deafeatnig the brutes, but they stood their ground as the brutes came closer. However, as the brutes lifted their brute shots to fire, a stream of plasma came towards them, tearing through the brutes' as they scattered and tried to find cover, but they were all cut down as the plasma kept firing at them.

Poli looked up and saw the seraph the fieldmaster had mentioned hover above them, and activate its gravity lift. A roar could be heard from behind the group and the fieldmaster shouted, "We must go now!"

Poli wasted no time in running into the gravity lift. He felt himself being pulled up and felt a sense of vertigo, and soon he found himself standing inside the ship. The pilot called out to the group of three, "Are there any more?"

"We are all that's left." The fieldmaster called back.

The pilot paused for a moment before speaking again, "The other group has set up explosives in the human base. The other seraph went to retrieve them, but they haven't radioed back yet, so we are going to see if they still live."

The fieldmaster stood to object, "We will not risk our live to save them. The bomb has been planted, and that's all that matters."

The pilot quickly shot back, "With all due respect, if we leave them there, we won't stand much of a chance if we get attacked." The fieldmaster started to speak again, but stopped himself, realizing the pilot was right.

The majority of the trip was in silence, the only noise coming from the fieldmaster, who was patching up his wound. Suddenly, the radio broke through the silence, "Is anyone out there?" an elites voice came through the speakers.

"Yes we are coming to get you." The pilot said into the radio, as he pushed on the accelerator.

"No." the elite said again. "The bomb is ready to explode; you won't get here in time."

"We are closer than you think." The pilot said again. "Look up."

The gravity life activated once again, and within seconds, a battered elite body came through the opening. Following him were two equally wounded grunts.

"The bomb will explode any second go now!" the elite shouted to the pilot, and the seraph accelerated and sped away form the camp.

Poli heard a 'thud' come from the direction of the base, and the seraphs shook violently, as the shockwave of the bomb hit the ship. Poli grabbed on to a nearby railing and held on for dear life as the lights flickered on and off and supplied became scattered all over the seraph's floor. As if it never happened, the shaking stopped, and the seraph returned to normal.

"Our engines have overheated." The pilot said from the cockpit. "I'm going to land in the forest below; the treetops will provide decent camouflage." The sound of the seraph landing filled the ship, and the hum of the engine stopped as the pilot cut power to them.

"It will take sometime for the engine to cool down, I suggest you get some rest." The pilot said stepping out of the cockpit.

Poli like the sound of that idea, and for the first time in what felt like years, Poli closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep.


	8. It Begins

Just Cannon Fodder

It Begins….

September 30th, 2552

Temporary Ex-Covenant base

- - - - - -

Councilor Ero Gilunee stood in the amphitheater, all the surviving Ex-Covenant on Earth gathered together in the now cramped room, thousands of eyes all glued to Gilunee as they awaited to hear why they were all hastily called to regroup the base. Most of them had just learned of this base's existence, let alone that a councilor was in command of the base. Gilunee stepped forward and raised his hand. The room became deathly silent, as the councilor addressed the soldiers.

"I thank you all for abandoning your posts on such short notice, but the information I have to tell you must be heard by everyone." He began, his voice carrying to the back of the amphitheater and everyone in the room became even more eager to learn what was so important. Gilunee didn't like small talk so he cut straight to the point, "We have formed a temporary cease-fire with the human forces." A roar of disapproval washed across the hundreds of aliens in the room, save for the hunters, who maintained their constant state of calmness.

"I understand your concerns, but both the human leaders and the arbiter agree that neither side can fight a war on two fronts." The anger in the room suddenly turned to that of hope, "The arbiter is still alive?" was the general question that every elite asked. "Yes" Gilunee answered, "The arbiter is currently negotiating with the humans to work towards a permanent cease-fire, but I fear that a truce is far off."

"This brings me to my second point, the real reason why you are all gathered here. Truth has gathered all his forces in an attempt to wipe out the remaining human forces. In fact, the attack force is gathered just 10 units away from this base." He said, pointing towards the west. "Truth thinks of us being nothing more than a nuisance, so far he had completely ignored our presence. He will pay dearly for his poor judgment. Tomorrow, we eradicate the Covenant!"

- - - - - -

So much had happened while Poli had slept. First, a patrol spotted their dropship and quickly retrieved them, delivering them to the Ex-Covenant base. They had not arrived in time to witness the councilor's speech, but they were able to watch it on a view screen. Every one of them was allowed a full nights rest and a large meal at the base, even the grunts. Poli had not felt this good in what felt like an eternity. He was well rested, well fed, and ready to fight.

Now, Poli sat in a shadow along with twenty other grunts. The plan the councilor had put in place was relatively simple. The covenant force still did not see them as a threat so their approach would be relatively unnoticed, especially since the covenant had already engaged the humans, only a few units ago. While Truth committed his entire force to slaughter the humans, the Ex-Covenant would flank the covenant from every side, surrounding them. While that occurred, a small group of the best of the best special operation teams would infiltrate the flagship that hovered in the sky, and kill the three prophets that were hiding themselves in it. Truth was too much of a coward to supervise the battle himself; instead, he was in orbit around Earth's moon, stowed away in his forerunner ship.

Poli could hear the sound of gunfire in the distance. He looked out the window of the shadow and saw the origin of the sound. A monstrous battle was taking place just over the next ridge, and the humans seemed to be losing ground. While they fought valiantly, the covenant out numbered them two to one, and they also had a whole regiment of wraith bombarding the humans' positions with mortar fire.

Apparently, the councilor saw the wraiths also, since no sooner than Poli turned his attention to them, his voice came through the speakers. "Attack groups seven and eight, break off and engage those wraiths to the east. Everyone else, move in closer, but keep a low profile. Do not fire unless fired upon." Poli tried to recall which group he was in. His question was answered when he felt himself fall to the left as the shadow turned and now headed straight for the wraiths' rear.

The shadows were relatively slow, so they took some time to reach the wraiths. While they advanced, Poli watched as the battle continued to rage on. The humans had dig in at the foot of the base, just outside the wraiths' range of fire. While they were safe from the wraiths, their new position left them vulnerable, and they were quickly surrounded by the covenant forces. Wave after wave of plasma flew towards the humans and streams of the projectiles the human's call "Bullets" flew towards the covenant. Brutes and humans both fell, but the humans were dieing at an alarming rate. Unless the Ex-Covenant entered the battle soon, the humans would be overrun, and any hope of a truce would disappear. They couldn't enter the battle, however, until the wraiths were taken care of. All there was between the Ex-covenant and covenant was open space. If they attempted to cross the space, the wraiths would most likely spot them, and demolish them before they could even get close to the covenant.

"They've spotted us!" the gunner called out. He fired the mounted shade gun at the closest wraith, and the other twenty shadows did the same. A portion of the wraiths turned and fired at the incoming attack, but the majority kept attacking the humans. The elite driving the shadow called out to the grunts, "Do it now!"

Poli grabbed the fuel rod gun that sat by his feet, and climbed to the top of the shadow. Four other grunts did the same and the formed a staggered line on the roof of the vehicle. Poli hefted the gun and took aim at the closest wraith. He pulled the trigger and felt the massive recoil as plasma exploded from the gun and arced towards the wraith. The green plasma hit the wraith, but did minimal damage. Poli saw that the other grunts didn't have any success either. "Concentrate on one target at a time!' Poli called out to the other grunts. They fired at a much slower rate, taking time to coordinate their targets, but the effect of their weapons was much greater. Five steams of plasma arched towards the wraith Poli failed to destroy last time. This time however, all five plasma bombs exploded at once, incinerating the wraith beyond recognition.

This went on for another few minutes, and Poli and his team managed to destroy ten wraiths before the fuel rod guns ran out of ammo. Poli's team crawled back into the shadow, but Poli stayed up top. The elite that had operated the shade gun had been killed by a wraith's plasma guns that were designed to stop infantry. Poli climbed into the gun and looked around for targets. Some brutes had abandoned their wraiths and charged at the shadows. Poli watched as a group of brutes managed to get close to one shadow and topple it over, and continued to beat it's passengers to death. Poli swiveled the gun and took aim at the brutes, which now turned their attention towards his shadow. Poli pulled the trigger and watched as plasma flew towards the brutes, knocking the off their feet. One brute tried to stand back up, but Poli fired another burst his way and put him down for good.

The other wraiths turned their attention to the advancing shadows, and fired in their direction. A few wraiths, however, continued to keep the humans at bay. Poli watched as the mortar soared above his head. He knew the shadow wouldn't make it out of the blast radius in time, but he stayed on the shade and continued to fire at the incoming wraiths. Poli managed to take down a wraith that got too close. A second later, he heard a large boom, and hung on to the shade as the driver lost control of the shadow. The vehicle swerved as the driver tried to regain control, but it was no use. A second mortar exploded a few meters to the right of the shadow, the resulting force causing it to flip onto its side. Poli was thrown from the shade and rolled to the ground.

Poli looked up to see a wraith coming straight for the fallen shadow, attempting to ram it. Poli got to his feet and ran towards the wraith. When he got close, he used his powerful hind legs to leap onto the top of the cockpit. He hit the release button and saw the cockpit door fly open. Poli primed a plasma grenade and dropped it in the opening, then leapt back onto the ground. No sooner than his feet hit the ground, the grenade detonated, rendering the wraith inoperable, mere meters from the fallen shadow.

Poli looked up to see that the wraiths were being overwhelmed, and their numbers were dwindling. About ten minutes later, the bulk of the wraiths had been destroyed, and the others retreated to the front line. Poli looked back to the battle to see that without the wraiths pinning them down, the humans were gaining back some ground, but they were still outnumbered and outgunned. Poli overheard one of the elites talk into his radio, saying that the wraiths had been neutralized. No sooner than the elite stopped talking, the councilor's voice came through every radio on the battlefield; human, covenant, and ex-covenant alike, "All attack groups, fire at will! Destroy the brutes!"

A massive dust cloud formed as the hundreds of shadows and ghost raced towards the battle, eager to get the first kill. Poli got into a nearby shadow as it made its way towards the battle, where the last of the human and ex-covenant fought for their survival. The third battle of Earth has begun.


	9. Clash of the Titans

Just Cannon Fodder

Clash of the Titans

Poli turned and threw his last grenade at the pursing brutes. The grenade flew true and landed on a brutes face. The brute attempted to pry the explosive off, but his efforts were in vain as the grenade turned white hot, then detonated, the explosion taking three brutes and several jackals with it. Poli fired a volley of plasma from his rifle at a jackal that tried to stand back up. The lights protruding from the rifle dimmed as the weapon began to power down. Poli discarded the rifle and ran over to the brutes he just killed to refresh his supplies. Taking the opportunity, Poli caught his breath and looked around at the carnage.

The shit hit the fan the moment after the councilor gave the order to attack. Seconds after the Ex-Covenant forces revealed themselves, the flagship hovering overhead lowered its altitude. The massive ship now sat a mere two hundred meters above the battlefield. The ship hung in midair for a few moments, before the dozens of hanger bay doors opened, and hundreds of shadows loomed over the battlefield. Seraphs swarmed out of the ship and descended towards the battle. The seraphs opened fire on the incoming force, sending thousands of superheated plasma bolts screaming down towards them. The separatist forces responded in kind. The councilor had prepared for an aerial assault, ordering each of the twelve battle groups had no less than three AA guns trailing behind them. The guns opened fire, sending huge streams of plasma towards the enemy craft. Every shot that connected destroyed at least one seraph. The seraphs' numbers quickly decreased and the remaining ship retreated into the flagships' hanger bays.

The councilors voice came through the radios again, "Reinforce the defense perimeters around the AA guns, if they try another attack like that one the guns will be their first target." As if on cue, the ships hanger doors opened once more, this time hundreds of spirit dropships emerged from the ship, escorted by the remaining seraphs. The AA guns opened fire at the second wave of ships. The seraphs broke formation and flew towards the guns at breakneck speeds. The AA guns managed to destroy about half of the incoming ships, but the survivors pushed forward, flying straight towards the area were ground troops had massed. The AA gun fired again, but the seraphs had closed in too much and every shot missed its mark. The small fleet of seraphs didn't even bother to fire their weapons as they crashed into the ground below, turning the entire area into a blaze of fire.

- - - - -

"What just happened?" Gilunee roared at his officers, staring at the now blank video feed of attack group three's AA gun encampment.

There was a momentary pause before a communications tech spoke up, "I'm getting numerous transmissions but from what I can make out, a large number of seraphs flew a suicide run straight at the reinforcements we sent."

The councilor slammed his fist against a metal bulkhead, "How many are left?" he asked as he regained his composure, ignoring the rather large dent in the wall.

"Unknown, a second officer said, "But further reports are saying that the covenant has landed ground troops and have surround groups three and four." He said, his head hanging low.

"Order any forces in the immediate area to assist those groups, but remember, our main objective is to aid the human forces." Gilunee said to the techie.

"Message sent sir, battle group eight is en route now." The comm. tech said before turning back to his post. Gilunee was just about to say something else before the lights in the control room dimmed shortly, and a massive earthquake shook the room.

"Report!" Gilunee barked as the lights and ground returned to normal. As if he didn't already know the answer.

"The covenant have found us sir, we're under attack!"

- - - - -

The councilor must have had it in for Poli. Only moments after his group had finished destroying the regiment of wraiths and now they had to reinforce groups three and four. Group 7 had taken the brunt of the damage attacking the wraiths, so they stayed behind to set regroup and set up a base camp of sorts. Only two of group eight's shadows had been destroyed in the past battle, and three had been left behind with group seven. So that left fifteen shadows moving towards the battle. They were still a good five minutes until they were in firing range.

Poli had manned the turret on top of the shadow and had the sights aimed directly on the closest cluster of brutes. He just about to fire when the entire shadow shook, and Poli was almost thrown off the turret. He looked up and saw a dozen sprits flying overhead. Several of them lowered and dispatched dozens of brutes, while the one still in the air strafed the shadows. Once the brutes were on the ground, the spirits flew back into the sky and joined the battle against the humans.

The brutes formed a perimeter around the battle group and cut them off from the other two groups. An elite that was inside the shadow jumped on the communications array and put on the headset. "Councilor, be advised the brutes have cut off group eight from reinforcing groups three and four, recommend sending additional reinforcements." He said into the mike, but only static answered them. He repeated the message but once again was answered only by static.

"They must be having trouble on their end," a second elite stated. "But that doesn't matter now, let's concentrate on our own battle.

- - - - -

Sergeant Stone surveyed the battlefield through the scope of his sniper rifle. The Ex-covenant forces were still far off in the distance, and the covenant was not giving the humans any respite. Stone turned his attention to a cluster of brutes that were massing to attack. The lieutenant had ordered a squad of snipers to position themselves on top of the base, and he had ordered Stone to lead them.

"Eyes up" Stone said into his radio. "Some apes are massing by the trees on our eleven. Take them out." No sooner than he gave the order, nine shots broke the silence on the rooftop. Stone watched as the brutes dropped, and the remaining ones scattered, trying to avoid the snipers. He eyed one brute in particular trying to regroup the brutes. He wore an elegant helmet and shining red armor. Stone hit the zoom button and the scope increased to 10-x magnification. He placed the reticule over the brutes head and pulled the trigger. The bullet hit its mark, striking the brute in the temple, but the helmet the brute wore stopped the bullet cold. Stone aimed once more, this time aiming at the brute's exposed neck. This time, the bullet sliced through the animals fur and blew straight through his neck, causing black blood to spatter all over a brute that as standing behind him. Stone smiled, but that smile quickly faded as he heard a buzzing sound.

The sound grew in intensity until it began to drown out the sounds of battle below. Stone looked to see where the sound was coming from, even though he already knew. He spotted a large black cloud flying straight at their position. "Get to cover we got drones incoming!" Stone screamed into his mike. The ten snipers scattered to find cover, but they were too late. Hundreds of drones descended upon them and sent volley after volley of plasma fire after them.

Stone drew his side arm and fired up into the sky. He mentally cursed himself for not preparing for such an attack. A plasma bolt struck him in the shoulder and sent him tumbling backwards, and into a stairwell that led back into the base. He looked at his shoulder, which was bleeding profusely and tried to stand up, but was stopped as he heard a sickening "crack" come from his ankle. Stone grunted in pain but managed to get himself upright. He eyed a com panel on the wall he was leaning on and activated it.

"Be advised, drones have penetrated the interior of the base via the roof, numbers estimated to be---"he was cut off as the com system died, the drones must have gotten to communications array on the roof. Stone sighed and fired his sidearm at the advancing mass of aliens.

- - - - - -

Gilunee listened to the reports coming in from all over the base. The skeleton crew he had left on duty here was being quickly overrun by the force the covenant had sent. Gilunee cursed himself for not leaving more forces behind to guard the base, but nothing could be done now. Reports indicated that the battle was heading straight for them and his officers were already arming themselves with their energy swords.

Gilunee stared at the video feed of the ongoing battle inside the base, and if their path of destruction were any sort indication, then the attackers would reach the command post in a matter of minutes. Gilunee pressed a small button, hidden under his command chair and a small holographic keyboard appeared before him. Before the battle, he had had some special operations members secretly install it, a failsafe of sorts. As he typed on the board, he spoke to the communications tech, "Please, " he said, placing his hand on the officer's shoulder, "Just one more transmission to send out." He finished typing the command.

- - - - - -

Three levels below, in engineering. If anyone was in there, or more specifically, if anyone was alive in there, they would have heard a small beeping sound. And, if they had looked for the origin of the noise, they would have found a small device, and if by chance, they examined the device, they would have seen a timer start counting down.

- - - - - -

Poli threw his last grenade, and watched it explode, consuming several jackals in the explosion of brilliant blue light. He then ducked back into the shadow as an overcharged plasma pistol shot at him, missing his head by inches. Poli's group managed to punch a hole through the covenant's line and meet up with groups three and four. The remaining shadows formed a circle and had been fighting off the covenant's assault for an hour, neither side gaining ground. The other groups managed to reach the humans, but they were too far off from the front line to have heard any news.

Poli rolled to avoid a bold brute that had managed to charge through their defenses without a scratch. The brute ran as fast as his legs could carry him, a belt of plasma grenades in his hand.

"Kill him!" an elite roared, firing his plasma rifle at the beast. However, it was too late, the brute had ran towards the center of the formation, where dozens of wounded had gathered inside three damaged shadows. He jumped inside one of the shadows and disappeared shortly. Several seconds later, the three shadows and the wounded troops gathered around them disappeared in a flash of blinding blue light, leaving only a smoking crater behind. Poli ducked as a brute shot grenade missed his head by inches, and continued on to slam into a grunt that had the misfortune of standing behind Poli and sent charred body parts everywhere.

Poli climbed to the top of the shadow and manned the turret. He fired at a number of brutes charging their formation, and cut them down quickly, but more took their place. For the first time in an hour, Poli was able to see exactly what their situation was. The brutes easily outnumbered them by hundreds, maybe thousands, and no help was coming soon. Poli still had fight in him though as he growled, and sent streamed of plasma at every brute that came his way. The shadow next to Poli took a direct hit from a brute shot and toppled over to it's side.

As if on cue, dozens of brutes charged the weak spot, hoping to end the battle and rejoin the front lines. Poli turned and laid down some fire to help defend the elites as they tried to flip the shadow back over, but left his backside exposed. A brute jumped on top of the shadow and slammed his fist into the turret Poli was on, ripping it off the roof and sending it, along with Poli flying to the ground, pinning Poli under it. He struggled to get it off, but it was far to heavy and he was too tired, and he waited to die.

- - - - - -

Back at the human base, things were looking up. They combined effort of the humans and separatists had managed to fight off the covenant, and the spec ops. Team that had been sent to eliminate the prophets on board the destroyer above them had succeeded, and dozens of phantoms were en route to fully take over the ship. The human survivors were busy mopping up any remaining brutes. Pvt. Mickey looked up to see what was left of the valley, and noticed a group of brutes in the distance. He keyed his mike, "Sir we've got some activity to the west. Lots of brutes, looks like they're attacking some stragglers."

"Any friendlies left out there?" his co asked. Mickey put a pair of binoculars to his eyes. He saw hundreds of brutes and climbing over a circle of shadows, and a small group of elites making a last stand. Within seconds the brutes overwhelmed them and killed them all quickly. "Negative sir, all friendlies KIA" he reported. His co sighed, "Understood, I'll let command know.

- - - - - -

Col. Winters watched the view screens, over half of his forces had been killed in the battle, but… they had one, they had survived, for now. "Sir," a tech called out to him, "We're getting reports of a number of brutes 1 kilometer to the west, no friendlies left in area." Winters turned and faced his crew. A lot of men were killed when an army of drones breached the building via the rooftop, but the humans managed to battle back and send them running.

"Send the to hell lieutenant." Was all he said. The tech switched frequencies, "Longsword squadrons A, multiple brute targets located due west, take them out, use of missiles authorized.

- - - - - -

An alarm sounded in Poli's ears. He had only a half of a unit left of methane, and to make matters worse, the turrets had cracked open his tank, and methane was leaking quickly. He tried one more time to get the turret off him, giving a cry of rage and pushing with all his might, but it still wouldn't budge. The alarm in his ear grew louder and louder as his methane supply dwindled. Poli felt his body growing heavy and warm, and his eyelids grew heavier and heavier. He looked to his left, and saw a group of elites being eaten alive by the brutes. Then he looked up to the sky and watched the clouds go by. He heard a buzzing noise coming from the east and tried to look over, but the turret was in the way. He knew what the sound was though, he had heard it many times before when humans were still enemies.

'Better than being eaten' he said to himself, and he closed his eyes as the longswords grew closer and closer…

- - - - - -

THANKS FOR READING THESE PAST FEW MONTHS! YOU GUYS ROCK!

Epilogue on next chapter.


	10. Epilogue

Just Cannon Fodder

Epilogue

December 10th 2560

Covenant home world

The combines forces of the separatists and humans managed to take back Earth for themselves, and with reinforcements from the grunt and elite home worlds, they managed to push back all covenant forces all the way to their home world. Now, the largest force in the universes history prepares to assault the surface.

..Grunts first… as always…


End file.
